think about the eating part.”
He took out my cell phone and programmed a number into my speed dial. He hit the number and quickly hung up. I got up and paced, anything besides sitting. The more I sat, the tighter I felt. Action. I needed action. Even risky action. Okay, not too risky. Think, I told myself, as long as you are stuck, you can think. How can we get out of this fix?
Just then the doorbell rang. We both looked up. What to do?
“Don’t answer it.”
“I better. If it’s my neighbor she has a key. If she is here to borrow something she knows she can come in and get it. We borrow stuff from each other all the time.” Okay, so it wasn’t true, but I needed to be able to answer my door in case help showed up.
“Get rid of her. Don’t let her in. If you want her to live you’ll get rid of her.”
The bell rang again. I opened the door just wide enough to see out. It was a kid.
“Hi, Mrs. Callahan, I’m selling candy for my school and I was wondering if you’d like to order some chocolate or cookies. We have other stuff if you’re on a diet.” He thrust the catalog at me and the gun jabbed me in the side.
“I can’t right now,” I said, “I’m right in the middle of something. When is it due?”
“Next Thursday,” he said.
“Can you come back next week? I’ll buy something from you then.”
“Okay, I’ll try.”
I closed the door with a relieved whoosh and almost sank to the floor.
“What makes you think you’ll be here next week? Maybe I’ll take you with me when I go. Maybe you’ll mess up and make me use this gun. Maybe we’ll still be sitting here next week picking off candy salesmen with my .45. You can’t count on next week.”
I hadn’t even turned around to reply when there was a knock on the door. Scared to answer, I turned around. The knocking turned to banging and I knew it was the kid next door. He wanted to go get his basketball from my backyard.
“This’ll only take a second,” I said with a glare.
I opened the door. It was Aaron, like always.
“Lose your ball again?” I asked, masking the fear in my stomach with a cheery voice. “I’ll throw it over the fence in a minute.”
Aaron ran home and I turned to my unwanted guest.
“I know you want things kept quiet, but in this neighborhood the best way to do that is to keep things normal. All I need to do is retrieve the ball and toss it next door.”
We went out into my backyard, found the ball and tossed it over the fence. Aaron yelled, “Thanks!” and resumed dribbling.
“What’s all this junk back here?” the carjacker asked.
“It’s not exactly junk. This is an agility course. When Shadow gets bored he wants to come out here and run the course. See, this piece is a hurdle. This piece is called the Weave Poles because the dog weaves in and out of the poles in a straight line until he reaches the end. Here’s a tunnel. This is an A-frame.” The A-frame gave me an idea, but it wasn’t time to test it. The A-frame was only a few feet from my back fence and would give me easy access out of here if I had to make a run for it. “Do you want to see how it works?”
“Sure, why not, just remember I got the gun.”
“Shadow isn’t used to having people here but we’ll see how it goes. Shadow! Heel.” I commanded. Shadow trotted up and stood at my left side. I walked over to the hurdle. I wasn’t sure he would listen to me with distractions, so I put him in a sit-stay several feet from the hurdle and walked to the other side of the hurdle.
“Jump!” I called. Shadow looked around, unsure. “Jump!” I tried again. He stood, ran a few steps and jumped over the hurdle. “Heel.” I said and walked to the next obstacle. Since this one was easier to do from a walk, I headed right into it “Weave,” I said, “weave, weave.” Shadow weaved in and out of the poles. “Good boy! Good weave!” We went on to the next one, the tunnel, “go through!” Shadow shot through the tunnel. He really liked the tunnel. He liked to go through the course at a run but I thought if I did anything sudden I’d get in trouble. Shadow was holding back and he wasn’t too happy, just obeying.
“What about the ramp one?”
“We just started that one. I’ll see if he’ll do it right. If he doesn’t I’ll have to correct him and work with him or he’ll develop bad habits.”
We walked over to the A-frame. It was set at a gentle slope and peaked at about 4 feet. “Up!” I commanded, “Shadow, go UP!” I walked beside the ramp showing him the direction he was to go. He had gone over the A-frame but he wasn’t yet ready to take it flying like some of the other obstacles. If I was doing this on my own, I would have food and a leash and I’d take it at a jog so he had some momentum going, but I didn’t have those things. Shadow walked up the “up” side and peered down the “down” side. Going down was harder than going up. He started the down side and slid a little because of his hesitant attitude. As soon as his paws hit the ground on the far side I praised him.
“Good boy! Good dog!” Shadow jumped around and around barking.
“We usually do the whole thing at a jog. And we have other obstacles that we need to build.”
He gestured to the course and I took that to mean we could go through it once more so I jogged off with Shadow trotting next to me. “Weave, weave.” I said, “Go through. Jump!” Now the A-frame, “Go up, come down, good boy!” Shadow was really stoked now. He was in his groove and it was time to stop. I got an idea. Since all this activity seemed to be okay, I walked over to the A-frame, unhooked the chain and raised it another foot. I might be able to use that additional height later, and I could fit the change into the training without suspicion.
“One more time, Shadow! Weave, weave, go through. Jump! Go up! Come down! Good boy, what a good boy! You did the high one! Good job!” There, the A-frame was ready in case I had a chance to use it. Mission accomplished.
It was getting on towards dinnertime and I hadn’t had lunch yet. Staying alive was more important than lunch but I was debating whether it was more important than dinner. I rose to go to the kitchen and the gun immediately swiveled my way.
“Where do you think you’re going?” A warning voice but his demeanor was calmer. This was a good thing.
“It’s dinnertime. I’m going to cook dinner. You want to eat eventually, don’t you? And do you have a name? I’m Cassidy.”
“Manny,” he said and let me cook. So much for the tying up threat. Maybe his hunger was outweighing his fear.
I’m not much of a cook, but I won’t ever starve to death either. I learned all my cooking from watching Martha, the ranch housekeeper, and Martha cooked for a crowd. I grew up on a ranch with four ranch hands, so dinner involved cooking for at least nine. Big men with big appetites. So there I was, single and cooking for a crowd. I’ve cut back some, but my Texas skillet is still the most used pot in the house. I thought of my options for chicken trying to think of a dish with
